Efficient Packing: Traveling with Liquids

I believe
that American counter-terrorist thinkers are too reactive and not very
proactive.My brother-in-law Joe is a
warehouse manager, and he’s still not allowed to use or to carry a box-cutter
on the job.He opens a hundred boxes a
week, but he can’t carry a box-cutter. He is allowed to carry a 6″ switchblade that is scalpel-sharp… but not a box-cutter.Many ridiculous rules continue to plague us since that horrible day on
9/11. Until we start proactively looking for the terrorists (like Israel does), and actually banning them from airplanes (like most everyone else does), we’ll be stuck waiting for them to strike, and we’ll be faced to live with the crazy rules they introduce us to.This is why we can’t carry liquids (like drinking
water) through the security gates.

What do
beer, wine, shampoo, suntan lotion, insect repellent, shower gel, yogurt, expensive
cosmetic lotions, prescription cough medicine, orange juice, and kool-aid have
in common?You can’t carry them onto an
airplane without careful forethought, that’s what!Traditional thinking for the average
traveler/packer would bend a person toward throwing all of these liquids into a
bag and to check that bag at the counter.I’ve met so many people who tell me, “I HAD to check a bag, I have
liquids!”Really?It costs at least $50 (round trip) to check a
bag these days.

First of
all, you need to ask yourself, “Do I have elite status with this airline?”If you do, this entire exercise is pointless
and you can check whatever you want for free.It may be inconvenient for you to check a bag, but sometimes it beats
hauling the darn thing around the airport.There’s something to be said for breezing through the airport with
little more than your ipod and book to carry.

If you don’t
have elite status, reassure yourself that you will someday and then ask
yourself, “Do I really need this liquid where I’m going?”If you’re traveling from MN to Hawaii, do you
really need to pack suntan lotion?If
they sell suntan lotion in Minnesota, you can bet they sell it in Hawaii,
Florida, California, etc…Do you need
your fancy and expensive cosmetic lotions, or could you do without them for a
week?Can you get by with the hotel’s
shampoo for a week, or do you really need to take your giant bottle?Hotels have free toothpaste, do you need to
take yours?

Once you’ve
narrowed down your liquid list to only the “must have” items, it’s time to pack
them in such a way that you can carry them on.The TSA allows more liquids than you think.Their motto is 3-1-1, that means 3oz, 1 quart
zip-top bag, and 1 bag per person.You
can do a lot with those parameters.Closer scrutiny of their policies actually reveals that you can bring
3.4oz of liquid.That’s almost ? cup!You can carry an infinite number of 3.4oz
bottles, as long as they fit into a 1qt zip-top bag.Go to Walmart and walk over to the
pharmacy/cosmetic area.You’ll find a
traveler’s aisle.At the end of that
isle, you will find that they sell empty 3.4oz bottles that you can fill with
whatever liquid floats your boat; Whiskey, facial cream, hair-gel,
whatever.Buy as many as you can fit
into a 1qt bag and take them home, label them, and fill them up.These days, many cosmetic companies offer a
“free travel size” bottle when you buy a larger bottle of shower gel, etc.I’ve purchased several of these for that very
reason, those little bottles work very well.Assemble your small bottles into your larger zip-top bag, this is your “traveling
bag of liquids.”